The Last of Us: Ascending Light
by NightStarRetaliation
Summary: With Joel in critical condition due to injury, Ellie has to do what she can to survive on her own in the wilderness. However surviving against infected & a crazed madman who wants to harm her nearly proves to much for her to handle, but little does she know, that the mutation in her brain which gives her, her immunity to the infection is more powerful then she realizes...


**This is my first attempt at a Last of Us Story, and I hope you all will enjoy reading it. There will be some dialog from the game but I will also be putting my own spin on it as well. All the characters are owned by Naughty Dog except for my own OC Character who will play a huge part in the story with Ellie and Joel, so without further adou, I give you The Last of Us: Ascending Light! As I said before hope you enjoye reading and please leave lots of positive reviews only. If you don't like it then please do not review.**

 **Author's note: The beginning of this story takes place when Joel get's hurt and leads into Ellie running into David.**

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 _Italics - thinking_

 **bold - chapter title/character perspective**

 _italics/underlined - Ellie or Joel's memories_

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 **Chapter 1 - On My Own **

It was late fall, and the leaves on the trees had already started to change from a bright green to a shade between orange, red and gold. Soon after we had departed from Joel's brother's place, and with Tommy's direction, we were able to fond a locate the University of Eastern Colorado, a place where the Fireflies were thought to reside. Leaving Callus, the horse Tommy had lent us outside, we made our way into the building and almost immediatly I began to get a sinking feeling that something wasn't right _. This place looks deserted._ I thought trying not to show any sign of fear. "Let's look around." I said as jogging slightly ahead of Joel. Dust and debris lay all around us the further we entered the building. _Where are they?_ I wondered. _Shouldn't the Fireflies be here? We should've seen someone by now shouldn't we?_ "Hello?" I whispered while trying to keep the hint of fear out of my voice. Something was wrong and I knew it. Something wasn't right. _Where are they?_ I wondered again. "Yoo-hoo!" I called out loud. "Fireflies! Savior of mankind over here!" I waited for a brief moment to see if someone would respond back, and when I didn't get a response I called out, "Anyone?" "Let's just keep it down until we can figure out what's going on." Joel whispered quietly.

Following Joel's gaze as we entered a room that seemed to have some supplies, I walked over and began rummaging through a trunk hoping to find some stuff that would provide some use, but of course there wasn't any. "Nothing useful." I reported turning to Joel who seemed transfixted on piece of paper on a clipboard in his hands. "Nothing here but a bunch of medical mumbo jumbo." Joel replied as we looked around. "I don't get it." I sighed heavily.

"Looks like they all just packed up and left in a hurry." Joel said as a loud crashing noise suddenly caught our attention. "Maybe not all of them." I said hopefully, but I could tell looking into Joel's eyes now that it ment that whatever was going on that it probabbly wasn't good. "Stay close." He whispered. Following the noise up the stairs of the building, and with a mixture of fear rushing through me expecting to find a bunch of bodies or a group of Clickers or something else horrible, we eventually realised that it was just a bunch of monkeys. "Well maybe in all their research they turned into fucking monkey's." I said obviously slightly irritated by the outcome. "Let's keep searching." Joel said queitly. "I'm sure we'll find something." Following Joel as we broke through a door of a small room that housed a shriveled up skelton like body slumped over in a chair, I tried not to think about to much and began rummaging through a book I had noticed on a nearby shelve hoping it would tell us something useful. Joel meanwhile had picked up a nearby recorder that was next to the dead body and hit one of the buttons on it.

"If you're looking for the Fireflies they've all left." Said a man's voice from the recorder. "Yeah no shit." I said aloud as I only half listened. "I'm dead...Or I will be soon. Give me some time to refect..." I heard another button click as Joel fast foreward through the message witha look of irrtiation in his eyes. "In the years it felt like we were..." Another click came as Joel continued to fast forward through it. "Fucking thing was a giangatic waste of ti-" Another click and this time I put the book I had been skimming through back on the shelve and stood up. "Look for the others. They've all returned to St. Mary's hospital in Salt Lake City. You'll find them there." Upon hearing the last part of the recording I looked over at Joel. Finally there was some good news, which ment that our journey was about to be over.

"Do you know where that is?" I asked. Joel nodded. "I know the city." "Is it far?" I asked. "It ain't close." Joel replied. "Horeback-" Suddenly he stopped briefly. "What?" I asked worridly as I followed his gaze toward a bright light shinning in the distance. "Fireflies?" Joel didn't respond for a split second until he suddenly cried out, "Get down!" A loud crashing noise sounded overhead and broken glass from a nearby window shattered over our heads. "What do we do now?" I asked. "Stay close." Was all Joel could say as we made our way back down the was we came through the building. Realising now that the Fireflies were nowhere to be found, and as I followed swiftly behind Joel, I now realised that we come across a group of both infected and cannibals, however during the brutal fight, I look over just in time to see Joel wrestling with one of the cannibals. And as I watch them struggling, I see them both falling over the railing of the building. I then see Joel falling and hear him grunting in pain as I realise he's been impaled in the abdomen.

"Oh my god." With shaky breaths expelling from my lungs, I tried to keep my cool, despite the fact that I was shaking like a leaf as I made my way down toward him. Immediatly once I reached him, I could tell he was already in bad shape as bood was beginning to pool out from underneath him. "Wh-what do you want me to do?" I asked trying to keep the hint of fear from my voice. Suddenly the door behind me burst open as two more cannibals rushed in. Joel managed to push me aside to try and fend them off, but the injury proved too much for him to handle. "Get back!" I yelled out as I reached for the gun I kept tucked behind me. Cocking the gun as I carefully aimed it towards the assalient's head, I made sure to hit him between the eyes. The sound of the gun as I fired it gave off an echo sound and my hands shook briefly as I watched the cannibal fall to the floor with a soft groan escaping from his lips as his body went limp. Taking my gaze off the dead body that lay before me, I then rushed by Joel's side, who was fighting just to stay concsious despite the gravious injury. I could feel a set of tears threatning to fall from my eyes as I tried to keep my cool as he grabbed ahold of my jacket. "Wh-What?" I asked my voice slightly shaking as I tried to hold back a sob. "I-I need you to pull." He managed to finish weakly. My hands shook as I held onto his hand that was around my jacket and managed a short nod as I replied, "Okay." I watched the tears of pain pooling in Joel's eyes and I began to wonder if he really was going to make it. Was this it? Was I really going to be left on my own now? "Ready? One...Two...Three." I gathered up as much strength as I could and watched with teary eyes as a cry of agonized pain escaped from Joel's throat as his body slid off the metal rod.

Placing my arm carefully around Joel's waist, I began to lead him the rest of the way out of the building. We had just bearly made it halfway out when another group of cannibals and infected ambushed us, guns raised and blasting off all around us. I could hear Joel groaning as I watched him fall to the ground. "Hey get her!" One of the cannibals yelled out as I pulled out my gun and began firing. "Stay back!" I yelled out. Shots rained out from the gun like fireworks as I kept a close eye on Joel who was growing weaker by the second and if I didn't find help for him in time-I didn't even want to think about that. I had come so close to lose anyone else I cared about now. Once I was sure that there were no more groups coming to get us, I then walked over toward Joel who was just on the verge of passing out. "Stay with me." I whispered quietly gently trying to help to his feet. "Come on Joel. We're almost there."

The Cold air from the evening twilight hit us once I had gotten the doors opened and although Joel tried to walk down the short flight of stairs, due to the gravious injury he had actually amnaged to tumble down them instead. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Callus struggling as a cannibal was trying to untie him from where we had left him. Taking my gun out once again I fired at him, and he went down limp without a single cry of pain. "Joel-" I said turning my attention to him. "Just-get the horse." He managed weakly as I watched him struggling to get to his feet. Walking over toward Callus, I managed to reasure him the everything was okay, and brought him by the reigns toward Joel. "Can you get on?" I asked once he was on his feet again. Joel didn't respond just only groaned loudly as I helped him get onto Callus's back. With shaky hands I managed to pull myself up behind him. _Can't believe it._ I thought tossing my head over my shoulder to see if we were being followed as Callus took off running. _I can't believe we made it out of there._ Looking back at Joel now, I could hear his weakned ragged breathing despite the fact that he was trying to hide it.

I must have somehow dozed off for a second or two, because by the time I managed to regain my composure again the air around us was growing colder and I began to worry more for Joel's safety. "I think we're safe." I said as I took a quick glance over my shoulder again, but Joel didn't respond, in fact something seemed wrong about the situation. He was slumped forward on Callus and was basically sliding off. "Joel?" I asked worridly as I watched him fall to the ground. "Shit." I breathed. With my hands and body shaking from the cold and fear, I managed to shrug it off as I jumped down from Callus and made it over to him. "Joel?" He was cold and unmoving, but I knew his heart was still beating because I could see his chest rising and falling with each weakned breath he was taking. "Come on, Joel. You got to tell me what to do." I said shakily. "Come on, you got to get up." The wind started to howl at this point, and I knew that if I didn't do anything that I was going to be in some pretty serious trouble.

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 **TOO BE CONTINUED...Well there it is hope you enjoyed the first part of my Last of Us story, and are looking forward to the next part which will feature David. Hope you enjoyed reading and as always please leave positive reviews only! **


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